Valley’s costs lower than expected
Running the city of Spokane Valley last year turned out to be cheaper than predicted.
Officials from the 14-month-old city touted that as good news last week and said 2003’s lower-than-expected expenses will improve its financial forecast. But Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley warned that if the new city continues saving money by cutting back on services, as he asserted it has, citizens will suffer.
Roskelley is especially concerned about filling potholes, sweeping streets and performing other road repairs, which Spokane County does for Spokane Valley under contract. The city had budgeted $1.7 million for street maintenance last year but spent less than $900,000.
“Our fear is that the citizens will complain about Spokane County as opposed to complaining about the City Council that is making those decisions,” Roskelley said. “If we can’t maintain those roads at the level Spokane County has in the past, they need to look for a different contractor,” he added later.
Spokane Valley officials have said it’s not that the city reduced service levels. Road maintenance simply ended up costing less than it had estimated.
The county is the city’s main service provider. The entities engaged in two types of contracts last year: contracts paid with monthly invoices based on actual usage and costs, and contracts paid monthly or quarterly based on an annual estimate.
Under the actual-usage contracts, the city can change its orders throughout the year.
The latter contracts include a settle-and-adjust period at the end of the year so the city and the county can look back and see exactly what work was done and how much it cost. Through that, the entities determine which party owes the other money. That post-2003 period is nearly completed, and so far, out of six contracts worth a total of $900,000, the county owes the city $64,000, according to the county’s administrative services director, Marshall Farnell, or $124,000, according to Deputy City Manager Nina Regor. Farnell said he might be unaware of an additional $60,000 owed by the county, but neither he nor three other county officials could say for sure.
Meanwhile, the actual-usage contracts came in about 48 percent cheaper than the city had predicted.